Thursday’s storm filled streets in the Melrose Shopping District with rainwater and even flooded some nearby businesses. 

“This has been the worst,” owner of Brooklyn Projects Dom DeLuca said. “I’ve lost out every time. Over the last nine times, I’m out easily $200,000.”

DeLuca’s shop on Melrose is near the intersection of Gardner, a section of the iconic shopping district that’s been repeatedly flooding over many years. Clearing the water often requires the fire department to come and open a manhole. DeLuca said the city should be ready and on standby during big storms. 

“When you know it’s going to rain, send them up and down Melrose a couple of times and when you see it, pop it open and the water goes down,” he said.

The flooding zone sits in Los Angeles City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky’s district. 

“The infrastructure there needs to be upgraded,” she said. “It’s going to cost anywhere between $20 and $40 million to fix.”

Yaroslavsky said her office has protocols in place but getting resources, like the Los Angeles Fire Department, to the flooded area to open a manhole on a chaotic night can be difficult. 

“When there’s a big flood across the city last night and a lot of rain they’re being pulled in a bunch of different directions,” she said. “They’ve got mudslides across the city which as you know is very spread out.”

Pete Nichols, the executive director of the neighborhood group Melrose Action, said cuts to things like street cleaning are also having an impact on the flooding. However, he said there is no one person or department to blame.

“The city crews are just so taxed. LAFD is so taxed right now,” he said. “I empathize with our merchant because they too have been through hell and back.”